Overlord puts zombie twist on D-Day

DIRECTOR Julius Avery takes us back to D-Day, and gives it a brilliant B-movie twist in this grand mash-up of war film and zombie fest.

June, 1944: two million troops from 12 countries gathered in Britain, 18,000 paratroopers were dropped over France to prepare the way and 14,000 air sorties were flown to keep the Luftwaffe at bay.

Boyce (Jovan Adepo) and his Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russell) lead a group of heroic troops as part of this massive undertaking. So far, so well-trodden cinematic paths – as we had with The Dirty Dozen and Kelly’s Heroes, Overlord features a group of battle-hardened Allied soldiers taking the fight to the evil Nazis.

En route to knock out a radio beacon in a church to prepare the way for D-Day, these gun-toters make their way to the destination to complete the task – only to find something else entirely awaits…

Forget the V2 rockets: the Third Reich’s secret weapon is a serum that brings back to life, in a Frankenstein-type of way, the dead. SS troops collect up cadavers and get them moving again, the ultimately in ghastly experiment.

Above all, while there are flaws – the characters don’t really offer much we haven’t seen before – Avery has created the perfect mix of war film, zombie film, and horror. The SFX are utterly disgusting, the whole thing looks great and Overlord is an enjoyable piece of gruesome, blood-soaked theatre.